According to the Fresno Bee for Friday, March 31st, the central Sierra snowpack is anywhere from 130% to 150% above normal so far this year, and there are more storms on the horizon. It's beginning to look like a late season for anybody heading for the high country.

I wonder if the guys building the bridge across the south fork of the Kings River at upper Paradise Valley will have it finished before my planned Rae Lakes Loop trip in September.

I was just wondering what the levels were at. I'd been planning a photo trip into Evolution Valley in the last week of June, but have been concerned that with the way this spring has been shaping up that heading up there in late June would be a little ambitious.

It's pretty difficult to translate "130%" or such into actual conditions in the backcountry come summer given that how warm spring and early summer is can play a big role and the fact that "100" doesn't really relate to any tangible schedule in the backcountry. Unless one has a plane and flies over to check things--the Chuck Yeager method (and the vast majority of us aren't in that category)--then the next best thing is to look at the DWR snowpack and compare it to earlier years when we've been up in the Sierra. I generally don't bother to really check until the beginning of May. Then check the DWR snowcourse historical measurements and compare them to the current year (as of the May 1 reading). You will generally be able to find a past year that is pretty close or bracket between two years. Then you compare your notes for that past year (or years) for a given location and elevation versus where and when you want to go this year. Granted this is a heck of a lot more useful if you've visited the range a lot over the years (and have kept notes on the early season conditions--we've tried to hit a number of lakes right after the thaw for fishing purposes, hence the attention paid to this detail). Until this latest storm we were about dead on the 1997 pace, but I imagine we're now ahead of 1997 for the southern/central Sierra. As far as Evolution in late June is concerned, I'm pretty sure the lakes will be thawed, but stream crossings may be a problem.

Below is something too, part of today's Yosemite report. Note one of the Tuolumne sites, Gin Flat which of course is along highway 120 at 7k shows 92 inches of snow depth. And in the last 48 hours they have had over 11 inches of rain on top of it! ...David

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April 1 Snow Survey Results

Park personnel have completed the April 1 snow surveys. March was wet! There was measurable precipitation in Yosemite Valley on 20 days in March; for the period February 26th through April 3rd, we had precipitation 26 out of 37 days. Overall, the water content of the snowpack went from about 90% of average at the end of February to about 130% of average at the end of March. This is somewhat behind last year, when the water content was 163% of average on April 1, but the current series of storms forecast for early April may should increase those figures above last year's totals, particularly at the higher elevations. While these numbers are impressive, the total gain in the snowpack doesn't quite match the "miracle March" of 1991. Figures for individual snow courses are shown below.

Comparing the current webcam shots of Half Dome from Sentinel, on the Yosemite Association website, with last years of the same date, there seems to be little difference in snow depth. Half Dome is obscured upto the summer snow patch in both views. This was about the high mark for last year.

I was going to go into the Ansel Adams Wilderness one year in mid to late July. I called a couple weeks before the trip and they told me there were still 6' snow drifts and running water thru the meadows. That was a good year to go to the Yolla Bolly Middle Eel Wilderness west of Red Bluff. I went into the Ansel Adams in mid Oct instead and there was still snow higher up on some parts of the trail I went on and Lake Catherine looked like it had only thawed out about a quarter of the way and was froze over again when I got there.